How do we innovate small, regional, post-industrial cities?

In November, I joined a group of colleagues in Oneonta, New York, to facilitate the Innovation Challenge New York (ICNY). Based on the model we developed in Philadelphia at the Fox School of Business’ Center for Design+Innovation, this civic innovation challenge asked students to envision a new future for this small city.

This is a video of the civic innovation process at the 2015 Fox DESIGNchallenge in Philadelphia. Students apply design thinking principles to address the question: How can we change our transit system and car culture to achieve the economic, social, and environmental dividends from a less auto-centric future?

Oneonta is like many post-industrial cities in the Northeast. They are challenged with declining population, underutilized infrastructure, and a lack of job opportunities and economic growth. Oneonta today is a shell of its more prosperous past.

A year earlier, we conducted the first Innovation Challenge NY in Utica, Oneonta’s larger northern neighbor. Like Oneonta, Utica faces similar challenges on a bigger scale. They are part of a pattern of regional cities in decline. However, these 2 cities are seeking to reinvent themselves by tapping into the fierce loyalty, pride and boot-strapping potential of those who remain.

They ask themselves the basic question: “How might we use our existing infrastructure, industry, knowledge networks, and history to find new opportunities for economic growth and improved quality of life?"

My experience in these cities reminds me of Italo Calvino’s stories in his book “Invisible Cities”. Calvino's "Invisible Cities" are mythical stories recounted by a fictionalized Marco Polo to Kublai Khan about fantastical cities within his empire. Each city has something amazing about it, yet it is unknown to the outside world. Oneonta, Utica, and numerous other small, regional cities are our invisible cities. Each has some fantastic quality that makes it special - waiting to be discovered by an adventurous explorer.

In Calvino's story about the trading city Ersilia, he unknowingly outlines the basic format of our civic innovation process. Dissecting the text reveals both the Challenge methodology and reasoning behind it. So, let's analyze the story of Ersilia and discover how to reinvent our own invisible cities. . .

Portrait of South Philadelphia produced by participants in an innovation workshop for the Free Library of Philadelphia

Trading Cities

In Ersilia, to establish the relationships that sustain the city’s life, the inhabitants stretch strings from the corners of the houses, white or black or gray or black-and-white according to whether they mark a relationship of blood, of trade, authority, agency. When the strings become so numerous that you can no longer pass among them, the inhabitants leave: the houses are dismantled; only the strings and their supports remain.

From a mountainside, camping with their household goods, Ersiia’s refugees look at the labyrinth of taut strings and poles that rise in the plain. That is the city of Ersilia still, and they are nothing.

They rebuild Ersilia elsewhere. They weave a similar pattern of strings which they would like to be more complex and at the same time more regular than the other. Then they abandon it and take themselves and their houses still farther away.

Thus, when traveling in the territory of Ersilia, you come upon the ruins of the abandoned cities, without the walls which do not last, without the bones of the dead which the wind rolls away: spiderwebs of intricate relationships seeking a form.

Step 1: Immersion

. . . the inhabitants stretch strings from the corners of the houses . . .

The first step of the process is immersion and data collection.

This is a physical approach to problem solving and requires hands-on fieldwork in the city itself. Rather than discussing problems from the safe confines of a conference room, this approach engages issues firsthand. One must be like Calvino's Marco Polo and explore the city's fabric to discover hidden challenges and opportunities. This involves observation by walking the city and interviews with stakeholders.

Challenge participants walking through Oneonta

Step 2: Abstraction and Analysis

. . . the inhabitants leave: the houses are dismantled; only the strings and their supports remain.

The second step is abstraction and analysis. After immersion, it is important to step away. What are the underlying patterns? Is there a hidden logic?

Abstraction through drawing, diagramming, and mapping enables participants to strip away the surfaces and superficial structures to find their underlying relationships and the root causes of problems. The goal is to break down complex information into more understandable basic elements that can be categorized and clustered to find relationships.

. . . white or black or gray or black-and-white according to whether they mark a relationship of blood, of trade, authority, agency.

Like the inhabitants of Ersilia, participants seek to order the information of the city. Although this phase is still exploratory and reliant upon trial-and-error to find the best tools, this type of analysis is methodical and rigorous. A typical method we use is Storytelling and Note-taking with Post-it notes. This transcribes personal accounts and experiences into building blocks which can be combined into meaningful insights about the city. Another method is illustrated in the portrait of South Philadelphia shown above. In this model, participants create visual representations of their city and use strings to connect all of the related qualities, institutions and organizations.

. . . From a mountainside, camping with their household goods, Ersiia’s refugees look at the labyrinth of taut strings and poles that rise in the plain. That is the city of Ersilia still . . .

As in Ersilia, these abstract representations are a form of the city itself, a clearly defined network of relationships laid bare. Regardless of the method, the goal is to make the relationships more evident and use this information to synthesize meaningful insights and opportunities for change.

Step 3: Pattern Recognition + Opportunity Identification

. . . spiderwebs of intricate relationships seeking a form. . .

Once the city is abstracted and analyzed, the next step is to recognize patterns within the information and identify opportunities for change. These are Calvino's "spiderwebs of intricate relationships seeking a form . . ."

No problem exists in isolation. In this phase, connections are made among existing conditions, competing forces and influences and unmet user needs. The city is viewed as a system. Within this system, what is needed and not being provided? Where are the gaps? Where are the successes? Where are the most significant intersections? Often, it is helpful to distill insights into a "Big Idea" which can be used as a catalyst to generate many solutions.

Step 4: Idea generation and solution building

. . . They rebuild Ersilia elsewhere. They weave a similar pattern of strings which they would like to be more complex and at the same time more regular than the other . . .

Once the opportunities are identified, ideas are generated through brainstorming sessions to propose potential solutions. This is again an iterative process and includes trial-and-error. Numerous ideas are made visible through diagrams andmodeling. Each is a rebuilding of the city in an improved form.

. . . Then they abandon it and take themselves and their houses still farther away . . . 

Once an idea is explored, it is important to quickly move onto a new idea - each pushing the potential solutions farther away from what is known, obvious or expected and further toward what is surprising, challenging and innovative. The best qualities of each proposal are consolidated and combined into a final proposal.

Step 5: Presenting Solutions

The last step in the process is presenting the ideas to the group. In this stage, ideas are shared, critiqued, questions are raised and initial feedback is provided. Depending on the situation, this can either be the end of the process or the beginning of a new round of consolidation, development and refinement.

In Oneonta, we all recognized that the 9 student teams in the initial round produced 9 strong ideas that need another round of development. The next step will be to build on these proposals by combining related ideas and developing the most promising directions. In this second round, we also recognize that it is time to bring more people in positions of authority into the process. Again, Calvino unknowingly provides the answer. In Ersilia, it is the inhabitants of the city who engage in the process of building, analysis, reflection and rebuilding. For our invisible cities to rebuild themselves, meaningful change has to be envisioned within the community itself. Oneonta's small size and civic-minded inhabitants make it a perfect test case. In the Spring, we plan to return for another session where civic leaders - political, economic and cultural - take the ideas proposed by the students and work as a team to make them better. At the end of this phase, the next step will be to make it real.

Special thanks go to Carolyn Lewis / SUNY Oneonta, Robert Edgell / SUNY Polytechnic Institute and Carli Ficano / Hartwick College for making the Challenge in Oneonta possible.

In 2005, Daniel Pink made the bold statement that we are shifting "from an economy and a society built on the logical, linear, computerlike capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and a society built on the inventive, empathic, big-picture capabilities of what’s rising in its place, the Conceptual Age." To prepare business leaders to meet the demands of this shift, he asserted that an MFA is the new MBA.

"The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind—creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers. These people—artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers—will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys."

Ten years later, design and creativity are buzz words in management dialogues and increasingly making inroads in today's business school curricula. My role for the last 6 years at the Fox School of Business has been predicated on the value of design thinking to enhance management education and practice by introducing design-based research and unstructured problem solving. The challenge I and others in similar roles face is in providing evidence that design in management is essential and more than a novelty.

Last month, I coordinated the 3rd annual Temple Analytics Challenge, a student competition to analyze data and visually communicate insights to solve problems for sponsoring organizations (for 2015 they were Merck, QVC and Pennsylvania Ballet). Open to students across all schools and disciplines, the art students dominated the competition for a second year in a row, winning First Place, Third Place and 2 Honorable Mentions. Even more surprising, the same student, Cassandra Reffner, won first place both years. This year alone, she beat out 394 other entries to take the coveted top spot. Reflecting on her success and the success of her peers from Tyler School of Art, it raises the question again - Is an MFA the new MBA? Could this provide the evidence that design skills are essential for successful management?

At first glance, one could dismiss the art students' success as the ability to produce eye candy to seduce the judges. However, the evaluation criteria emphasize the ability to use and understand the data to gain insights to aid in decision making over simply representation. The evaluation criteria are:

Clarity (how well the graphic stands on its own without additional explanation)

Novelty/creativity (originality of thought; surprising way of approaching the data)

Provides meaningful insight into the data

Integration of multiple data sets to yield new insights

Utility of the visualization in aiding decision making

Maybe the answer is found in Daniel Pink's argument? Maybe the winners are the "creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers" he describes?

In his book A Whole New Mind, he describes six essential aptitudes for professional success: Design. Story. Symphony. Empathy. Play. Meaning.

Design - "Today it’s economically crucial and personally rewarding to create something that is also beautiful, whimsical, or emotionally engaging."

Story - "The essence of persuasion, communication, and self-understanding has become the ability also to fashion a compelling narrative."

Symphony - "What’s in greatest demand today isn’t analysis but synthesis—seeing the big picture, crossing boundaries, and being able to combine disparate pieces into an arresting new whole."

Empathy - "What will distinguish those who thrive will be their ability to understand what makes their fellow woman or man tick ... "

Play - "In the Conceptual Age, in work and in life, we all need to play."

Meaning - "We live in a world of breathtaking material plenty. That has freed hundreds of millions of people from day-to-day struggles and liberated us to pursue more significant desires: purpose, transcendence, and spiritual fulfillment."

Not surprisingly, the winning entries displayed mastery of all six of the above. That they were well designed was expected. However, their real strength was in their ability to weave the data into a compelling story, make unexpected connections to yield important insights, and empathize with key stakeholders (including the subject organizations) to understand their intellectual and emotional drivers. Stories provided the necessary infrastructure to link multiple data analyses and additional external research together to break down the problems and build towards a recommended solution. Furthermore, each of the winning entries displayed experimentation (a willingness to play with the data), playfulness visually and intellectually, and whimsy to engage the viewers. Lastly, all found meaning in the data and ways to connect their findings into evidence-based solutions.

Using Ms. Reffner's winning entry as an example, the presence of Pink's 6 aptitudes become readily apparent. She approached the challenge presented by Pennsylvania Ballet (to determine how to best reach the right audience to grow ticket sales and increase charitable giving) by playfully adopting ballet references and imagery. She strategically organized her story into 4 parts, labeled as First, Second, Third and Fourth Positions, and used this as a narrative structure to sequence her analyses to progress toward her recommendations. This was smart. It positioned her analyses in the Ballet's world (through language and visually), making the numbers and final recommendations less foreign. It also enabled her to look at the problem and the data from multiple perspectives yet maintain a coherent thread of logic. Beginning with an analysis of their ticket sales, she could then easily move onto analyses of growing trends in the arts and the web and a competitive analysis of PAB's online performance compared to other ballet companies to finally yield recommendations to invest in their online presence. Numbers drove her story and connecting the results of her analysis to situationally relevant secondary research supported her findings.

Why is this important?

Data Analytics is a growing field and its importance is only increasing. As more companies rely on data to drive decision-making, the ability to use data to derive insights and make smarter strategic decisions is now a fundamental business skill. The problems solved by students in the Temple Analytics Challenge were real problems provided by real organizations. Each typifies the challenges facing organizations today.

The strategic decisions needed to solve these types of challenges and drive future growth need a more holistic view and use of both sides of the brain. As Pink notes, "Today, the defining skills of the previous era—the “left brain” capabilities that powered the Information Age [sequential, logical, and analytical] —are necessary but no longer sufficient. And the capabilities we once disdained or thought frivolous—the “right-brain” qualities of inventiveness, empathy, joyfulness, and meaning—increasingly will determine who flourishes and who flounders."

Each of the Challenge problems required the ability to:

understand the problem from multiple points of view

determine what information is relevant to the problem (both obvious and surprising)

synthesize multiple sources of information to derive insights

contextualize the specific problem and solution within a broader system

find and convey meaning in ordinary and unexpected relationships

The success of the art students in this competition demonstrated that the "best and brightest" will need to to do more than crunch numbers. (Many of these students had to take an introductory workshop in Excel - just to learn how to work with data.) Instead, what is more important is that they are very well prepared as "creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers". These are the skills necessary to succeed in a data-driven business world. As business moves more in this direction an MFA may be the new MBA.

How many times do you say, "I wish I had an extra hour"? Once a year, when the clocks roll back for daylight savings we gain that extra hour in our day. What did you do with it?

This year, I decided to be much more proactive about it and use the time in a productive way where the results would be very visible. I decided my 25th hour would be devoted to all of the "back-burner" items that I normally do not get to in the typical day. My 25th hour was for the "want-to-do" list - not the "have-to-do" list.

It was great. I spent my time finishing projects that I have not been able to complete and that bother me every time I am reminded that they are hovering in a state of limbo. The satisfaction of completing them was rewarding and the sense of accomplishment is addictive.

Now that I have experienced what a 25 hour day feels like, I do not want to give it up. My new goal is to capture a 25th hour in every day.

Now that I have experienced what a 25 hour day feels like, I do not want to give it up. My new goal is to capture a 25th hour in every day. 

My strategy is simple: instead of waiting for a rare 1 hour block of uncommitted time to be available, I am going to find four 15 minute blocks. These are the leftover times between appointments or the gaps between the completion of one task and the start of another. Who doesn't have a few 15 minute gaps?

This method is not rocket science. Numerous time management advisors talk about using small incremental blocks to get work done. Not surprising - there is also an App available for a 25 hour clock to trim a little time from every hour to get more done. The important thing is the conscious effort to MAKE the time available - regardless of the method.

This post is the product of my 25th hour. Tomorrow, there will be another...

What will you do with your 25th hour? Let me know what you did and how you captured your time.

Part 1: The toaster oven.

Recently, my daughters and I purchased a toaster oven as a a Mother's Day gift for my wife. (Yes, not very exciting - but we love this toaster oven.) We began the purchase process by researching online using Google. Ever since, the ads appearing on my screen are of toaster ovens. Google, I appreciate that you are trying to help me, but I don't need another toaster oven!

Internet activist Eli Pariser outlines this problem in The Filter Bubble. According to Pariser, the algorithms used by Google and Facebook to personalize search reduce the information available to us. Instead of opening our world to a broader range of information, they define us by an increasingly more limited bubble of information. The ads appearing when I browse online work the same way. They are tailored to my browsing history. Unfortunately, they are showing me what I wanted to see, which is not necessarily what I want to see now. They are predicting my preferences and behavior based upon my past rather than what I would logically want to do next.

Assuming I will purchase a toaster oven and will then be using it, what I really need are ads selling me bread for toast. Thinking through the next steps of a process are a sign of smart, thoughtful and intuitive service. 

If Google were really smart, they would change their approach and think about the logical next step in my journey. Assuming I will purchase a toaster oven and will then be using it, what I really need are ads selling me bread for toast. Thinking through the next steps of a process are a sign of smart, thoughtful and intuitive service. Understanding service as a continuum of before/during/after and anticipating a user's future needs provides more opportunities to engage consumers and improve service experience.

Part 2: Thinking through Before, During and After

A luxury brand that understands service as a continuum of before, during and after is the Ritz Carlton. During a recent stay in Tysons Corner, Virginia, they did two things that showed they understood what we would do before arriving, during our stay and after we left the property.

First, they broke the mold of standard checkout times. Instead of the customary noon checkout, they used a different model based upon a 24-hour time frame. Our checkout was personalized to our stay, scheduled for 24 hours after we checked in. This displayed an empathic model that understood our need to get away for a day. It removed all stress prior to our arrival by eliminating the standardized morning departure and the ticking countdown of the time available in between. This is a fundamental shift in perspective away from an internal operational point of view based on the need to efficiently clean and turn over rooms to a guest-centered point of view of why one wants to “get away” in the first place. It enabled us to RELAX before arriving, during our drive and during our stay. Most importantly, this conveyed VALUE to us as a guest. We paid for and received an experience of A DAY. It also kept us on the property longer, increasing the opportunities to engage us more (and increase our spending.)

Upon departure, they closed the service experience by thinking through our journey home. As the valet brought our car to the entry, he opened the doors and gave each of us a cold bottle of water (in Ritz Carlton branded bottles) for the long ride home. They accompanied us from door to door.

Both of these small acts made a big impression on us.

However, our stay was unfortunately not as seamless as the above examples would suggest. There was a major disconnect between our interactions BEFORE arriving on property in the reservation stage and the delivery of the service at Check-in. Throughout the reservation process, I had multiple discussions with reservation agents in which I stated that there would be 4 of us staying in the room: my wife and I and our 2 daughters. When we arrived, we were given a room with one king-sized bed and a roll-away twin bed. How does the number of occupants (4) not translate into a corresponding accommodation of beds (3)? After explaining the problem, they moved us to a room with a sleeper sofa to accommodate both of our daughters. This seemed like an improvement until housekeeping provided only one pillow when they made the bed. Once again we were back to accommodations for 3. How can an organization that skillfully handled the more complex emotional and temporal understanding of our stay stumble over the simpler logistics of correlating between the number of guests and beds?

Like our experience with Google, what was missing was an understanding of what comes after the reservation process is completed. When 4 guests arrive, they will expect 4 pillows. Our information needed to follow us as the service unfolded, triggering intuitive responses from housekeeping and other operational areas to anticipate what would logically happen next.

Toraya, a Japanese confectionary since the 16th Century, understands the value of this kind of smart, intuitive service.

Part 3: The Delight of Smart Service

In March, we were in Tokyo and became obsessed with Toraya confectionary. My wife and I decided to purchase several sweets to give as gifts to friends and family back home. It was a rainy afternoon when we purchased our gifts and we had a complicated order of different sized packages. The young woman who helped us provided the typical high level of attentive service for which Japan is famous . . . and then she went beyond our expectations. She intuitively addressed our future needs without any prompting from us. By doing so, she made a strong impression on us and converted us into loyal brand ambassadors (this blog post is a perfect example of this.)

As she packaged our purchases, she thought through the next steps in our process and extended the service journey into this future state. She asked herself, "What does this purchase mean to them? Where will they be going after this purchase is completed?" and "What will they do next with these gifts?"

First, she considered that a purchase (any purchase) is important and valuable to the purchaser. Gifts, especially, represent personal relationships and their associated emotions and they have significant meaning for the purchaser. Knowing that it was raining and the water would damage our shopping bag, she carefully wrapped it in a perfectly fitted protective plastic sleeve. This was just an ordinary thing for her to do, but for us it showed an extraordinary level of care. The message was clear: “This purchase is special, and it needs to remain special after you leave the store.”

Extending the service further into the future, she then thought through our experience at the time of giving the gifts. Here is where her actions became a simple act of service brilliance. There were 3 packages, each with a different number of treats inside. Knowing that we would be confused at a later date when giving the gifts, she devised a visual code to communicate the difference between the packages so we would not have to disturb or mark the wrapping. She carefully folded down the top of each gift bag to create packages of different heights, reflecting the number of pieces contained inside. Each package visually communicated the size of the gift, making it easy to differentiate them. Before placing the individual packages into the shopping bag, she carefully explained what she had done. With little effort, she created an infrastructure at the time of purchase to insure the future gift-giving experience would be pleasurable. She extended the duration of the service to include events outside the domain of the immediate purchase.

The value of thinking through service as a continuum of before, during and after is that you extend the service experience beyond the limited confines of the immediate interaction. Each time we gave one of the gifts, we were still in some way engaged with our sales person at Toraya. This is significant. Time together is about building relationships. Extending the service to encompass time before and after extends the time together and the opportunity to provide more value and make a lasting impression.

This is a photo of my daughter's bedside library. She represents a typical user with an atypical need.

Recently, she proudly announced that she had organized her books and wanted to show us the results of her labor. At first glance, the books appeared neatly arranged and ordinary. However, the richness of the situation lay in the unexpected logic of the organization.

As an observer, I was blinded by my assumptions. I immediately assumed the books were organized based upon one of the more typical criteria:

Wayfinding: Alphabetical by author or title (the system for the fiction section of libraries)

Interest: By subject matter (the Dewey Decimal System)

Utility: By what fit best on the shelves (the practical approach for most personal collections)

Aesthetics: By size, color or appearance (preferred by decorators and Architectural Digest)

My assumptions were derived from my experience. The German graphic design Otl Aicher states, "We see against the background of our knowledge." Unfortunately, this is limiting and often misleading. These are the easy options, the known and the most expedient. These were also all wrong.

My daughter organized her books based upon the criterion that is most relevant to her within her context of use: TIME. They were arranged in order of the increasing duration of time it takes to read them. She likes for us to read one of the books together as she relaxes before bed. The time available determines the book chosen. The story, subject or author are all secondary considerations.

In Business Design workshops, I often tell participants that they must become more active listeners and keen observers. The answer to a problem may be found in the smallest detail. To recognize these significant details and the opportunities they represent, one must challenge one's personal assumptions and see the world through the eyes of all of the stakeholders involved. Bill Moggridge cautions, "...you will need to understand the viewpoints of a full range of people ... that you can avoid the trap of designing for yourself."

In my daughter's case, beginning with how the books were organized followed by the reasoning behind this organization leads to an unexpected need and insight about how to serve a consumer better. TIME emerges as a significant driver for readers selecting books.

Surprisingly, this idea is not as farfetched as it seems. The blog publishing platform Medium uses TIME as a metric for success. Total Time Reading (TTR) is how they measure reader engagement. They claim it is "the only metric that matters." More time reading = more engagement. In the spirit of this approach, all of the blog posts on the platform are listed with the expected length of time it will take to read them. Only have five minutes? A 12 minute read may not be the choice for you. According to Pete Davies (formerly at Medium), "At Medium, we optimize for the time that people spend reading." In a low-tech way, so did my daughter.

People who had enough time to read this book also read this one...

What would happen if libraries organized their collections by time? The fiction collections of libraries are organized alphabetically by author. This assumes that one searches for the works of a particular writer and if you like their work you would be interested in reading more. In this case, the primary search and selection driver is the writer and their style. The Dewey Decimal System used by most libraries to catalogue their nonfiction collections is based upon subject. This assumes that one is interested in a specific subject area and clusters materials around related subjects. It is a system designed for research. How would an organizational system around time change this?

With TIME as the dominant organizing factor, the emphasis is now on the context of reading. It is less about WHAT one reads and more about WHEN one reads. In our contemporary condition where personal time is one of our scarcest and most valuable resources, is this a more appropriate approach? This questions the validity of the existing organizational model of subject, author, title and suggests a more contextual system of duration, environment and mood. Similarly, what would happen if Amazon based their recommendations on books of similar reading time? Would you receive recommendations like "People who had enough time to read this book also read this one..." Think how this might open up new markets or new opportunities to better engage consumers.

All this ... from a simple shelf of bedtime stories. A small detail can unlock unlimited possibilities if one listens carefully and challenges one's assumptions to hear what matters.